Recently all over the news there has been a drug scandal involving one of Japan's sweethearts, Noriko Sakai. She was a pop star in the early 90's, very cute, and hugely popular. Trying to think of an example. Olivia Newton John x 1000? Anyway, squeaky clean, like you have to be here to be famous. Then, in August, the shit hit the fan. Here's what
went down.Her husband, a "self-described pro-surfer" (he's rich and unemployed, and surfs), was apparently the object of a sting. He was seen inhaling a small amount of "stimulant," maybe speed, cocaine, meth, dunno, in a public toilet in Tokyo in July. Then the cops searched his car the next day and found a small amount. Then he was stopped on the street and was searched and they found a little bit on him. He was arrested and taken to the police station. While he was there he said, get this, that his wife Noriko does drugs too. What a guy. So they call her up and ask her to come to the station to be drug-tested and interviewed. She says she has to pick her kid up from school but she'll come in later that day. Instead, she disappeared with her son. Holy shit storm.
They search her place (she and her husband are married, but live separately) and they find 0.008 grams of stimulants. Basically dust. A warrant is issued for her arrest.
5 days of just blanket coverage ensues. I couldn't turn the TV on without seeing her face. I didn't mind, because she's cute. Nobody knows where she is. She's on the run! Can you imagine how big a story this is! There's a hotline you can call if you think you see her. A reporter went to the place where the family had spent the summer. Reporter: What did they do here? Shop owner: They ate ice-cream with their son. They were having fun. Reporter: What flavour ice-cream? Shop Owner: Chocolate. Reporter: I see.
5 days later she turned herself in. In that time footage had turned up of her dancing wildly in a night club, obviously off her face, and an interview she did a few months ago that the broadcasters decided not to show at the time because she was obviously off her face. The urine tests came up negative, but her hair tested positive. She's fucked.
All the contracts she has with various companies, including Toyota, have been cancelled. Her clothing line has been pulled from every store. Victor Entertainment, the distributor of her music, withdrew her CDs from stores, and suspended downloads of her songs. Her official website has been removed, her agency fired her, and the chairman of the agency resigned. She will lose tens of millions of dollars, and will probably never earn anything ever again.
I kind of feel sorry for her, but then she knew the golden rule here in Japan - don't get caught. She got caught. She'll probably go to jail, and when she gets out, she won't be able to live here anymore because it'll be impossible with all the media attention. I'm predicting suicide, but we'll see. There will be no Whitney Houston comeback or anything here. They are not as forgiving as the Americans.
Anyway, a lot of Japanese are wondering, can we trust our celebrities? Most of them are dipshits, and I'm guessing a lot of them are on drugs judging from their ability to get excited about going to a ramen restaurant and eating ramen for the millionth time. You'd have to be. Lately a few Sumo wrestlers and some other celebs have been caught with dope, so the public is up in arms. Institutionalized cruelty and rampant pedophilia? Just part of the unfathomable character of the Japanese. Drugs? Just baaaaaad.
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